2013 NHK Trophy Short Programs

by Tatjana Flade

Davis & White Easily Dance To The Lead

World Champions Meryl Davis & Charlie White (USA) easily
danced to the lead in the short dance. Everything else would have been a
major surprise. Italy’s Anna Cappellini & Luca Lanotte came second while
Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani (USA) are currently ranked third.

With “My Fair Lady”, Davis & White picked a fast paced,
light-hearted music that suits their style very well. They were able to
bring across the happy mood and combined that with their solid technique.
However, the levels were not as good as at Skate America three weeks ago.
The couple from Detroit had a level four for the second sequence of the Finnstsep and their rotational lift. The other elements were rated a level
three. Davis & White collected 73.70 points, two points below their seasons
best from Skate America. “Charlie and I feel really excited about the
direction our short dance is taking. We have a lot of things we want to
improve before the Grand Prix Final. But I think since Skate America we’ve
really grown into the presentation of this program ,which is really what
we were aiming for”, Davis said.

“It’s very simple just the levels. At Skate America we
had level four for both Finnsteps and twizzles and here we had a level 3
on the Finnstep and twizzles”, White explained when asked about not
achieving a seasons best. “We have to figure that out obviously. We don’t
want to go backwards, but it felt good, that means a lot, too. This is
still part of the building process when we figure out in which direction
we need to go to make sure that we can get the levels and achieve that
feeling that we were able to get today. But we are really happy with how
we skated the program, and I think right now this is the most important
thing”, he continued.

Cappellini & Lanotte delivered a characteristic
Quickstep and Foxtrot to “42nd Street” and “Broadway Lullaby”.
At Skate America they had earned a level four for all elements, this time
three elements got the hightest degree of difficulty: the fast
twizzles, the first Finnstep sequence and the rotational lift (anything
else than a level four for a lift is disappointing for ny dance team). The
Italian Champions scored 64.58 points. “It was kind of tough start in the
warm up when I fell unexpectedly in the Finnstep. I guess that made us a
little more nervous. There were a couple of mistakes and we left a few
points on the ice, but in general we are proud of our short dance. We were
able to bring a lot of fun and dance out there. It was not a perfect
skate, but something we can build on”, Cappellini explained.

Shibutani & Shibutani chose three songs by Michael Bublé
as they feel they have a special connection to them. The siblings achieved
a seasons best with 63.09 points with a strong performance. “Going into
this week our goal was to show improvement from Skate America. The
performance felt really good and our Finnstep levels got better”, Maia
Shibutani noted.

“This being the Olympic season everyone wants to pick
music they can look back on later in life and remember. There is no story
behind any of the Michael Buble songs, but in our selection, we were
struck by how the lyrics connected to the story of Maia and Alex, our
story. The past couple of years have been more difficult, I think it is
safe to say, than our first year in seniors. That was kind of a magical
year for us. Obviously we struggled through injury and various things. The
first song that we use is “The best is yet to come”. We wanted to include
it, because that’s kind of our mantra this year. We wanted to show that we
are back”, Alex Shibutani elaborated.

Elena Ilinykh & Nikita Katsalapov of Russia danced with
a lot of emotion and character, but they ended up fourth since they only
had level twos except for the lift. They now have 61.35 points. “We feel
great about our performance. This was one of my easiest skates, it was
very emotional and powerful, easy to skate. However, apparently we didn’t
quite focus look at the technical score. This is upsetting, because we’ve
worked so hard. But we will skate better and we will fight”, Katsalapov
said.

Cathy and Chris Reed gave an upbeat performance but
low levels kept them in seventh place (51.91 points). 2012 World Junior
Champions Victoria Sinitsina & Ruslan Zhiganshin were left in last place
with 44.34 points as she fell on the first keypoint in the Finnstep and
basically left out the whole sequence. As a result, they had no level for
this part.

Volosozhar & Trankov Skate to Confident Lead in Pairs
Short Program

As expected, World Champions Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim
Trankov of Russia lead by a wide margin after the Pairs short program at
NHK Trophy. Wenjing Sui & Cong Han of China are trailing the Russians by
almost 12 points. Cheng Peng & Hao Zhang, also from China, are sitting in
third place.

Volosozhar & Trankov looked strong again in their
“Masquerade Waltz” program, reeling off a high triple twist, triple toe
and a throw triple loop. The death spiral, pair spin and step sequence
were rated a level four. The couple from Moscow scored 82.03 points.
“Today we did a good short program, although the feeling maybe wasn’t so
comfortable in the last three elements. But we got a high score and we are
happy with it”, Volosozhar said. “We didn’t aim for a record score. We
just wanted to finish in first place and get to the Final”, Trankov noted.
“Maybe we were holding back emotionally. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I
was skating for a record”, he added.

It still was more than enough to hold off the
competitors. Sui & Han performed also very well to “La Strada”. Their
routine included big throws (throw triple flip, triple twist), a reverse
lasso and a side by side triple toe. For this, the students of Olympic
Champion Hongbo Zhao earned a new personal best score of 70.13 points. “It
was a good short program for us and we did our best”, Han commented.

Peng & Zhang just had competed last week in Beijing and
again were solid in their routine to “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”. The
team landed a triple toe, triple twist and two level-four elements, but
she touched down on the throw triple loop. The Cup of China bronze
medalists collected 65.09 points and improved their personal best. “We had
an error today, but we are in third place and got our highest score, so we
are happy with that”, Zhang told the press. “We have been skating together
for just over a year now and it was very hard, we had to work a lot”, he
explained.

Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier (USA) finished fourth at
58.67 points. Their program to “Malaguena” was highlighted by a throw
triple loop and a triple twist, but he landed forward on the triple
Salchow (downgraded). Teammates Marissa Castelli & Simon Shnapir follow in
fifth place with 58.60 points. He fell out of the landing of the triple
Salchow while she two-footed the throw triple Salchow. Paige Lawrence & Rudi
Swiegers of Canada are ranked sixth as both crashed on the triple toe and
she also fell on the throw triple Lutz (52.78 points). Japan’s new pairs
team Narumi Takahashi & Ryuichi Kihara finished seventh. She did a three
turn out of the triple Salchow and they had a few low levels (49.54
points). Anastasia Martiusheva & Alexei Rogonov had a rough skate that left
them in eighth place at 48.97 points. She doubled the toe loop and took a
bad fall on the throw triple flip. She was bleeding from a cut in the
chin, but the Russian team doctor confirmed that it was not a serious
injury.

Takahashi Scores Personal Best
to Win Men’s Short

Three weeks ago, Daisuke Takahashi of Japan skated
rather poorly and finished off the podium. In the short program at NHK
Trophy he proved that it is too early to write him off. The 2010 World
Champion fought back with a stellar performance in his short program to
take a 10.77 point lead over Javier Fernandez of Spain. Nobunari Oda of
Japan came third.

Skating to “Sonatino for Violin” by Japanese composer
Mamoru Samuragochi, Takahashi nailed a quad toe, triple Axel, triple
Lutz-triple toe combination as well as two level-four spins and level-four
footwork. With each jump landed, the crowd of more than 9,000 spectators
at Yoyogi National Stadium roared. With 95.55 points he not only scored a
new personal best but also now got the second highest score ever achieved
in the Men’s Short Program. Patrick Chan tops the list with his 98.37 from
the ISU World Championships 2013. “Today I’m extremely happy with my
performance and I haven’t been that happy in a while. I never expected my
score to be that high, I was surprised. But it wasn’t about the score, I
wanted to regain my confidence (with this performance)”, the 27-year-old
said. “After Skate America, I had time to sit down with my team. There was
some harsh feedback and needed to understand what I have to do. I was able
to get off to a fresh start”, he continued.

Fernandez finally debuted in competition this season
(if you don’t count the free skating only invitational Japan Open where he
participated) and presented his playful short program to “Satan Takes a
Holiday” that suits his laid-back personality. The Spaniard stumbled out
on the landing of his opening quad Salchow but he completed a triple Axel
and triple Lutz-triple toe combination. The European Champion picked up a
level four for all three spins and scored 84.78 points. “I had a little
mistake in my quad, but I think this is a great start for me. It is my
first Grand Prix and my first big competition this season. It was a great
competition today”, Fernandez said. He added that he didn’t mind that he
got the late Grand Prix events, but admitted that he was getting a little
itchy to compete. “I did my short program in a small competition in
Canada”, he said.

Like Takahashi, Oda improved from his first Grand Prix
event, which was in his case Skate Canada. Skating to “Cotton Club”, the
26-year-old produced a triple Axel, triple Lutz and fast spins, but he
underrotated the quad toe in his quad-triple toe combination. Oda earned
82.70 points. “I definitely wanted to avoid the same mistakes I did at
Skate Canada. I know that the judges gave me an under-rotation and an edge
call (on the Lutz) and those are definitely things I want to correct”, the
skater from Osaka noted. “I haven’t skated in a while at NHK Trophy. It
was great that I was able to control my tension and turn it into energy. I
heard the audience cheering for me and that gave me a lot of energy as
well.”

The following skaters are not far behind and a lot can
happen in the free skating. Adam Rippon (USA) sits in fourth with 82.25
points. He decided not to do the quad Lutz for now, but went for a quad
toe. He stepped out of the landing but landed a triple Axel and triple
flip-triple toe combination in the second half of his “Carmen” routine.
Japan’s Takahito Mura is currently ranked fifth. He stepped out of the
back end of his quad toe-triple toe combination and touched down on the
triple Lutz (79.97 points). Sergei Voronov of Russia reduced his combo to
quad toe-double toe and finished sixth (79.80 points). Jeremy Abbott’s
quad toe was not clean and downgraded, but he recovered with a triple
Lutz-triple toe and triple Axel. Max Aaron landed a quad Salchow-double
toe combo but missed the triple Lutz. He placed eighth at 76.21 points.
Konstantin Menshov of Russia finally also fell on the triple Lutz but had
a triple Axel and quad-triple toe combo.

Asada Claims Ladies Short

Mao Asada of Japan claimed the Ladies short program
followed by teammate Akiko Suzuki.
Russia’s Elena Radionova is currently ranked third.

Asada opened her program to a Nocturne by Frederic
Chopin with a triple Axel, but had to fight for the landing. The program
also featured a triple flip, triple loop-double loop combination as well
as level four spins and footwork. The two-time World Champion picked up
71.26 points. “I really focused to skate like in practice and I think I
improved from Skate America. After Skate America, I was able to work on my
transitions and spins”, the 23-year-old said. She credited choreographer
Lori Nichol with giving her a new vision to skating and being able not to
just think about the jumps.

Suzuki skated last and put out an inspiring
performance to “Hymne à l’amour”, the instrumental version of a famous
song by Edith Piaf. However, the 28-year-old reduced her combo to triple
toe-double toe and also wobbled on the triple flip. Suzuki collected
points with her spins and footwork that were all graded a lavel four. The
Japanese skater posted a new seasons best with 66.03 points. “My toe loop
(combination) and my flip were not so clean, but I am happy with my
interpretation. This is my third competition and also I controlled my
nervousness, I still worried about my jumps and I think that was reflected
in the performance today”, Suzuki said.

Tiny Elena Radionova showed guts in her program to
“Anna Karenina”. When she put her hand on the ice on her opening triple
Lutz she was unable to do her combination. But the World Junior Champion
just tacked a triple toe onto her triple loop in the second half of the
program. The double Axel could have been better, but the spins were fast
and featured beautiful positions. The Moscow teenager scored 62.83 points.
“Overall I’m pretty pleased with my performance although not everything
worked out today as planned. I had to switch my combination and my coach
encouraged me also to do it, I heard her shouting, go, go, from the
boards. I think the triple loop-triple toe is a difficult combination and
not many people are doing it.” She also explained that her coach was
considering not to send her to NHK Trophy because of pain in her foot.
“But I always wanted to come”, the 14-year-old stressed. “Once you have
the chance to get to the Final, you should use it.”

Gracie Gold (USA) in fourth place scored exactly 62.83
points as well, but Radionova’s higher technical score (34.12 vs 32.55)
broke the tie. Skating to “Three Preludes” by Gorge Gershwin, Gold
produced a triple Lutz-double toe combination, but stepped out of the
triple loop. Italy’s Valentina Marchei turned in a solid performance to
the Italian song “Torno a sorriento”, completing a triple Salchow and
triple Lutz-double toe loop combination (61.90 points). Satoko Miayahara of
Japan underrotated the triple Lutz in her combination with triple toe to
finish sixth at 58.39 points. Russia’s Alena Leonova fell on the triple
toe-triple toe combination. She said she is not yet a 100 percent
following her ligament injury that forced her out of Skate Canada. Mirai
Nagasu (USA) stumbled on a cheated triple flip and underrotated the triple
loop. She came eighth. Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia missed her triple
Lutz attempt and is ranked ninth. Zijun Li of China was withdrawn
following her poor performance at Cup of China the week before and was not
replaced.